6 CommentsOverstock.com was not only the first major online retailer to embrace Bitcoin in the United States, but it is also now the first retail giant to accept cryptocurrency across the world.
The American company, headquartered in Salt Lake City, started accepting BTC earlier this year, in January. Since then, Overstock.com has earned millions in BTC with products exclusively ordered by United States-based clients.
But from now on all Overstock.com customers from foreign countries where the company operates are going to be able to use Bitcoin to pay for their orders. “As long as you can get on the internet, you can order and pay in Bitcoin. You can order in North Korea if you want — as long as you’re having things delivered to, say, Singapore”, says Overstock founder and CEO Patrick Byrne, quoted by Wired.
Overstock’s decision to accept cryptocurrency was boosted by Byrne, who sees Bitcoin as a tool to free the current money system from the control of banks and governments. Actually, the entrepreneur recently announced his company would donate four percent of all Overstock BTC sales to non-profit organizations working to promote Bitcoin.
According to Byrne, “we swim in assumptions about how things should work, and we don’t understand the assumptions. We don’t understand the functions of governments, our legal and financial institutions. We don’t need them. We can use the internet”.
